LYNN Howells has warned the Celtic Warriors not to underestimate the size of the task facing them ahead of tonight's clash with the Newport Gwent Dragons (7.05pm).

LYNN Howells has warned the Celtic Warriors not to underestimate the size of the task facing them ahead of tonight's clash with the Newport Gwent Dragons (7.05pm).

The two Welsh regional sides face each other in a Celtic League encounter at Sardis Road and go into it boasting very different recent records.

For while the Warriors have lost four successive matches, the Dragons have emerged victorious from their last two encounters against Glasgow and Munster.

And although both of those wins came on home ground, Howells has no doubts about the quality of the men from Rodney Parade.

"Many people wrote the Dragons off at the start of the season, but I think they've proved a lot of their critics wrong," he said.

"You can't take anything away from them, while they've shown the importance of winning your home games.

"We've already come unstuck on our own patch against Glasgow, a result which didn't sit comfortably on any of our shoulders.

"We were disappointed not to pick up more than a bonus point against Ulster last week, though there's no denying our progress has been hampered by injuries.

"The unfortunate thing is we're losing experienced players, guys we need to have around if we want to bring on some of our youngsters in the way we'd like.

"But we're not using that as any kind of excuse and I've been really pleased by the way all the players have reacted.

"They're extremely positive, there have been no problems getting them motivated and if we can reproduce the same level of intensity we displayed at Ravenhill Park then we'll definitely be in with a shout."

Meanwhile, Howells' counterpart at the Dragons, Mike Ruddock, has been looking at how to address his side's poor away form having turned Rodney Parade into something of a fortress.

He said:

"We haven't performed well away and statistics suggest various reasons why teams don't perform as well away as they do at home.

"Our discipline will have to be spot on tonight because we all know what Neil Jenkins can do.

"I expect the Warriors pack to be fired up because they know the strength of our pack.

"And behind they have pace on the wings and Jon Bryant is a strong centre, so it will be a tough challenge."

Bryant will skipper the Warriors in the absence of injured No.8 Richard Bryan, while the Dragons are awaiting the results of late fitness tests on wing Nathan Brew, centre Steve Winn and loose forward Shawn van Rensburg.